WW-P South mounts third period comeback to top Lawrence

WEST WINDSOR — Somewhere between the start of the third period and the end of its Mercer County Tournament hopes it all came together for West Windsor-Plainsboro North.

Trailing after two periods the Knight played with a sense of urgency in the third period.

North, the No. 3 seed, battled back to get the lead and escaped with a 6-3 win yesterday over Lawrence in the quarterfinals of the MCT played on the ice at Mercer County Park.

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The win sends West Windsor-Plainsboro North (12-7-2) to tomorrow’s semifinal where it will face the winner of No. 2 Robbinsville and No. 7 Hightstown,

Lawrence (11-7-1), the No. 7 seed, will now await its state tournament seeding. It was fourth meeting of the Cardinals and the Knights with Lawrence having won the last two.

“We knew this would be a good game,” said North’s Matt Strober. “The seniors knew if we didn’t win that this could be the last game we play here as a team. Coach (Bob Weiss) told us before the third period to keep fighting and he stressed this could be one of our last games. It really hit us.”

The Knights responded by hitting the back of the net. They got one with 12:28 left in the period and then just 102 seconds later Greg Olsson’s power-play goal gave North its first lead at 3-2.

Strober scored to make it 4-2 with 5:36 left in the game and then Charles Singerhouse got a pair of empty nets goals to make the final score deceptive.

“Their goalie (Travis Pelke) is one of the best in the league and we were patient and trying to get angles and it just wasn’t working,” said North coach Weiss. “So, the third period we just switched to going straight to the net. We sent all the bodies into the crease and tried to pick up some garbage goals.”

Besides the two by Singerhouse along with Strober and Olsson the Knights goal scores from Sam Engel and Garrett Weinberg. Strober added a pair of assists with Weinberg, Singerhouse and Jordan Kessler getting assists.

Lawrence got a pair of goals from Pat Kelly and Brian Reznikov tallied the other. The Cardinals got helpers from David Rembisz, Corey Zrinko and Julian Bolton.

“I’m very proud of the boys,’’ said Lawrence coach John Ritchie. “They are a skilled team and we knew it was going to be a good one. It’s a tough one to swallow. We played two solid periods and then we just couldn’t stay out of the box and that’s what killed us.”

It was Olsson’s power play goal that was the deciding goal and it came off a rebound with a crowd in front of the net.

“Matt (Strober) shot it and I saw it there and I tried to get a n ice hard shot,” said Olsson of the third goal. “He’s really good their goalie and this went right above his glove and in.

It was with that same sense of urgency — and aggression — that North played the entire third period.

“Reality set in for us,” said Olsson of the third period. “We knew if we lost that was it. We want to go far in this tournament so we knew we needed to bear down.”